The Gods Must Be Crazy

Mythology can provide valuable insight into other cultures. Whether the immortal gods of Ancient Greece or the arcane deities of Ancient Babylon, the common function of these beings is to explain the irrational, but there is a difference in how the gods accomplish these ends. The Greek gods directly interfere with the events that occur in Homer’s epic, The Iliad. The outcome of the Trojan War is determined by the actions of the gods and not by the mortals who actually fought the battle. In contrast, the majority of gods in the epic, Gilgamesh serve more arbitrary “hands off” roles, such as guardians of specific regions. There are places, however, where the roles of the gods in these two epics overlap, specifically in their analogous representation of the goddesses of love, Aphrodite and Ishtar.